Category Archives: Technology

It’s the weirdest thing. And it’s something I’ve never noticed until recently. I only read the top inch of a web page. Weird, huh? I think there are various reasons why; I use the bookmarks bar in Google Chrome very heavily and my mouse seems to hover around the top of the page constantly. And so do my eyes, apparently.

I can hear you asking two questions… Why do you know this? And why does it matter? Great questions, you! Continue reading

After tinkering with and trying to raise attention to a serious privacy issue in Telstra’s MessageBank Plus (their implementation of Apple’s Visual Voicemail), I’m now convinced that the issue lies within Apple’s service and not Telstra’s implementation of it.

At the end of the day my contract is with Telstra. They’re the custodians of my privacy here and with them remaining absolutely silent, I’ve had no-one else to point the finger at. But my repeated replication of the issue makes me seriously consider the fact that this cannot be limited to the Telstra network. Continue reading

What voicemails have you received recently? A birthday message from a mate? Your mechanic letting you know your car’s ready? A doctor calling about your child’s test results? Your psychologist confirming an appointment? A lawyer to say your divorce papers are ready?

Now, who have you given or sold an old iPhone to? A family member? A colleague? A stranger? How would you feel if you discovered they had been listening to your messages?

If you’re up-to-date with my previousblogposts on this, feel free to jump ahead. If you’d like a walk down memory lane, please allow me to take you on a journey… Continue reading

Welcome back to the curious case of the voicemail on the formatted iPhone 5! If you’re new here, welcome. This is now the third installment in my adventures with Australia’s largest teleco [1], Telstra. My two previous posts are:

The TL;DR here is that I sold my iPhone 5 after formatting it and the new owner was receiving my visual voicemail. Telstra acknowledged the issue, but only after denying it was even possible and the media got involved [The Age, Friday Jan 22]. They then changed the security of my voicemail which prevented the iPhone from authenticating… It’s still trying as far as I know, but it’s failing. Continue reading

There was movement at the station, for word had passed around that the media was picking up their pens…

This post follows on from yesterday’s revelation that the new recipient of a completely formatted iPhone is receiving my voicemail…

Today kicked off at full speed when I woke to a swathe of support and comments from my reddit post. There was the suggestion again that the IMEI of my old device was part of the problem, concern about the overarching privacy issues and someone suggesting that I contact Apple, which I didn’t believe was necessary. Apple definitely knows about the issue now though! But let’s take a step back… Continue reading

Update @ 23:00 ADST – Jan 21

Update @ 21:00 ADST – Jan 20

Boy has this been an exciting afternoon. The official word from Telstra is “shut up and wait”. After a lengthy chat session that was escalated part-way through, I’ve been told my only option is to disable Visual Voicemail, wait for a case manager to call (24-48 hours) and wait for the other device’s owner to go to a store. So much for “hey, we’ve totally destroyed your privacy, here’s how we’re bending over backwards to help you”.

Update @ 19:00 ADST – Jan 20

Telstra’s Visual Voicemail reset is complete and (as advised) all of my old messages have been deleted. I have since done the following:

I asked my wife to call my number and leave a voicemail.

I asked the owner of my old device to reboot their phone.

They sent a message after the reboot not only telling me the message arrived, but repeating its contents.

Meanwhile, the email Allen said he would send with his contact link has never arrived. Telstra have also tweeted to say:

…voicemail is linked to your SIM Card, not your device, did you ensure to remove the SIM?

My SIM is now in my iPhone 6S here with me and wasn’t sent with the phone. Back to 24×7 Chat we go.

Original post @ 16:00 ADST – Jan 20

In late 2015 I performed a factory-reset on an old Apple iPhone 5 and sold it. It’s the same process I’ve done a number of times in the past (yeah, I know, I’m a gadget junkie) and before handing it over I ensured there was absolutely nothing of mine left on the device and the SIM was removed. A few hours ago the new owner let me know that they’re receiving a copy of my (visual) voicemails on the device and repeated contents and sent a screenshot of the messages to confirm it. YIKES!Continue reading

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